Southern Railway has proposed to set up a mechanised laundry at Mangaluru (Ullal) coming under its Palakkad Division under the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis for hassle-free availability of clean linen in its air-conditioned coaches.
Tenders for setting up for a 1.75 tonne-per-shift capacity laundry at Ullal on Railway land has already been floated for the purpose, sources in SR told The Hindu . The selected bidder will set up the mechanised laundry at their cost and operate it for 10 years before transferring the same to the Railways.
The infrastructure and facilities for the mechanised laundry should also have a cushion/margin to an increase of up to 25% of the estimated workload during the contract period without incurring any additional cost.
The contractor should also arrange power and water supply for the laundry, Railways said.
Sources said the mechanised laundry will help Railways provide clean bed-rolls to passengers in air-conditioned coaches of trains from Mangaluru. At present, the requirement is met by laundries existing elsewhere in the SR network.
Used linen from halting trains should be picked up by the contractor from a nominated place at Mangaluru Central and it should be transported to the laundry.
After washing, the contractor has to supply and load the washed linen sets to AC coaches either at washing lines or at platforms of the station. The contractor also has to maintain proper accounts of the linen items.
At present, BOOT mechanised laundries at Basin Bridge in Chennai (6-tonne capacity) and Kochuveli (3-tonne capacity) supply 26 tonnes or 23,000 sets of quality linen per day on an average to AC coaches of trains under SR.
The zone has proposed to set up BOOT mechanised laundries at Madurai, Coimbatore, Nagercoil and Ernakulam besides Mangaluru.
